lowkee
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2008
- Messages
- 1,890
I need some advice as to what I should be expecting from my realtor and what I should expect as a remedy to my nightmare of a home sale listing.
It is likely easier to post as a timeline, as it has been a tumultuous listing:
= Day 1
- Meet with agent we used to buy current house
- Provide 28 photos for listing to avoid awful photos being taken
= Day 4
- Listing goes live
- No photos or description on realtor.com
- Only 8 photos on main listing site
- MLS description is all caps and consists of the worst sales pitch EVER (only says the town the house is in.. 3 times)
= Day 10
- Still no realtor.com photos
- 16 photos on main listing site, 4 of them are repeats
- I provide an MLS description, gets truncated to fit char limit, still all caps, misspelling in description.
- Realtor delivers really nice pamphlets to hand out at showings as well as single page flier for box out front
= Day 12
- Realtor comes over and *I* upload the correct photos to the main listing site
- Listing description is edited to somewhat resemble the requested description, spelling error fixed. Although nearly every word is shortened, therefore killing search-ability completely.
- Realtor.com shows only 4 photos. Realtor tells me it'll cost me $300 more to add more photos. I discover houses 1/2 the price of mine with descriptions, 16 photos and top banners, mine has 4 photos and nothing else. No explanation as to why other, cheaper houses get better listings than mine
- Realtor offers to pay for home warranty ($400) as a peace offering
= Day 40
- House goes under contract
- Iffy status of buyer leads to choice to leave house on market with expectations of conditional offers
= Day 43
- House gets de-listed on all listing sites
= Day 45
- I find out on my own the house has been delisted
- Realtor tells me she is busy and cannot fix house listing until the evening, doesn't even know why house was de-listed.
Is this expected behavior from realtors? Is the bar so low people should put up with this? I mean, these people don't install carpets on the side, they do this time and time again.. and these issues are basic ones.. uploading photos for a listing? How does a realtor not know how to do this correctly (when I figured it out in an hour)? How does the largest realtor agency in the state not support descriptions in listings (more than the 500 char limit MLS listing)?
This isn't even a unique situation for me.. buying a house recently went equally as horrific. The realtor acted as dual agent and never even made sure the property was cleaned (I stipulated it in the contract.. there was an upside down hot tub in the front yard and a carport full of trash) and never made sure a survey was done (seller was to do it). I'm still holding the sellers money waiting for that stuff to be remedied. That realtor had the audacity to blame ME for putting up a stink at closing because the seller did not fulfill his part of the contract.
Is this an average experience? When I bought this house everything went smooth as silk. What is the norm, the nightmare or the smooth transaction? Are these horrific realtors or are all realtors this horrible?
It is likely easier to post as a timeline, as it has been a tumultuous listing:
= Day 1
- Meet with agent we used to buy current house
- Provide 28 photos for listing to avoid awful photos being taken
= Day 4
- Listing goes live
- No photos or description on realtor.com
- Only 8 photos on main listing site
- MLS description is all caps and consists of the worst sales pitch EVER (only says the town the house is in.. 3 times)
= Day 10
- Still no realtor.com photos
- 16 photos on main listing site, 4 of them are repeats
- I provide an MLS description, gets truncated to fit char limit, still all caps, misspelling in description.
- Realtor delivers really nice pamphlets to hand out at showings as well as single page flier for box out front
= Day 12
- Realtor comes over and *I* upload the correct photos to the main listing site
- Listing description is edited to somewhat resemble the requested description, spelling error fixed. Although nearly every word is shortened, therefore killing search-ability completely.
- Realtor.com shows only 4 photos. Realtor tells me it'll cost me $300 more to add more photos. I discover houses 1/2 the price of mine with descriptions, 16 photos and top banners, mine has 4 photos and nothing else. No explanation as to why other, cheaper houses get better listings than mine
- Realtor offers to pay for home warranty ($400) as a peace offering
= Day 40
- House goes under contract
- Iffy status of buyer leads to choice to leave house on market with expectations of conditional offers
= Day 43
- House gets de-listed on all listing sites
= Day 45
- I find out on my own the house has been delisted
- Realtor tells me she is busy and cannot fix house listing until the evening, doesn't even know why house was de-listed.
Is this expected behavior from realtors? Is the bar so low people should put up with this? I mean, these people don't install carpets on the side, they do this time and time again.. and these issues are basic ones.. uploading photos for a listing? How does a realtor not know how to do this correctly (when I figured it out in an hour)? How does the largest realtor agency in the state not support descriptions in listings (more than the 500 char limit MLS listing)?
This isn't even a unique situation for me.. buying a house recently went equally as horrific. The realtor acted as dual agent and never even made sure the property was cleaned (I stipulated it in the contract.. there was an upside down hot tub in the front yard and a carport full of trash) and never made sure a survey was done (seller was to do it). I'm still holding the sellers money waiting for that stuff to be remedied. That realtor had the audacity to blame ME for putting up a stink at closing because the seller did not fulfill his part of the contract.
Is this an average experience? When I bought this house everything went smooth as silk. What is the norm, the nightmare or the smooth transaction? Are these horrific realtors or are all realtors this horrible?